Explaining Fictional Technology

     Novels like mine always have a lot of super high-tech stuff and things that rarely have the time for the sheer amount of exposition needed to explain how they work. For Geneslave and Backwards Epiphany, I plan on providing information based on fact that describes how a certain technology works in the world on that novel. Before Geneslave, I’d like to address Backwards Epiphany.

     Backwards Epiphany takes place in an alternate version of Earth where we have completely obliterated the planet, leaving it as a hideous desert wasteland that are inhabited by all sorts of terrible beings. Some human, some not. Called The Wastes, the massive desert that has become out planet is dotted with enormous congregations of humans called Megacities, covering thousands of square miles and shooting high into the sky. Like, miles into the frickin’ sky. Congested and fast-paced, these cities can be seen on the horizons like mountains of steel and glass. Like any city, it has good places, and bad places. It has good people, and bad people.

     Water is the largest problem. Rain is tainted and must be purified before ingestion. Most established Megacities are on coasts close to sea water, where thr desalination industry have become more powerful than the oil companies of today. Millions upon millions of gallons of  sea water is purified, made fresh, and pumped into the hearts of Megacities straight from the ocean. Food is more processed than you could ever imagine, and whole meals can be created from a few strands of DNA, a molecule or two, and money.

     Government is dictated Megacity to Megacity, and immigration between Megacities are dangerous endeavors. Each Megacity is considered its own “country”, requiring that you have proper documentation, identification, and a decent criminal record to join the community. Each Megacity has its own military, navy, police force, blah, blah, etc.. It’s own President.

     Trade is very common between Megacities, and will all the extra fossil fuels found by exploring the sea for stable desalination plants, flying is the safest way to exchange goods between each bastion of civilization. Travel on land is risky, and all caravans must have full military escort at all times.

     Okay, with that said, I wanted to touch on David’s gun (David is the main character in Backwards Epiphany). It took me quite a while to come up with a weapon that really fit David. If I ever find the concept art again, I’ll post it. I didn’t want to give him a stereotypical revolver, or something tacky like dual pistols or some silly shit. I wanted to give him something that embodies what he is- a whole lot of danger in an unassuming package. The weapon I went with is a semi-automatic magnum with a state of the art suppressor that basically makes the bark of each shot a gasp and a click, masking the sound of the gunshot by emitting a frequency that literally cancels out up to 60 percent of the noise generated by the discharge. It utilizes a special bullet that inflicts severe damage on soft tissue and pierces through armor with equal ease. Why? It has a scanning device that assess the target’s density and distance in a rectangle the size of a playing card. Once scanned, the info is sent to a miniature, armored computer inside of the weapon, powered by a battery pack that charges itself by utilizing the heat energy released from an expelled round.

     Once the distance and density has been assessed (within mere nanoseconds) the projectile’s speed is adjusted via the control of gases (emitted by firing the projectile) and kinetic energy distributors within the weapon. On soft targets, the projectile has a tiny hole pressed in its tip, making it mushroom out and distribute the perfect amount of energy into the target to cause tissue damage equivalent to a 12 gauge shotgun blast at close range. On hard targets, extra velocity is added to the projectile, and the tip of the bullet is shaved into a tapering needlepoint. It is a handgun that can turn a thug’s head into jam at 10 yards, and can also rip through bullet proof glass at 100 yards away. Accurate, deadly, and silent, David’s pistol is one of the most outrageous weapons I have ever designed in a piece of fiction.

      Phew, I feel like a friggin’ scientist over here. Anyway, when I do publish, I wanted to let ALL my readers know that I will be the most accessible novelist you will ever find. I will directly answer questions about my characters and books, and I will explain technologies that I develop within these stories if I haven’t addressed them for you already. I’m here to help, teach, and have a good time. I would take advantage of that if I were you.

Becoming a Character

     Writers, if they have any fucking sense, should be their characters before they ever even put them on paper. Developing a character is not just making up a name and a  physical description. You have to live that character, you have to feel them under your skin, watching you write. Watching you fail and succeed.

     One of the most dangerous books I ever wrote was Backwards Epiphany, which is in the final stages of proofreading and will be placed to Kindle very soon. This book is about a man who takes vengeance. Yes, stereotypical as fuck, but I needed to change that. Many vigilantes will always try to not compare themselves to the people they’re killing, or try to be “better” than his or her targets. That’s not the case with David, the protagonist of B.E.. He knows that he must become scum, become a criminal, to destroy them. He loses himself in the self-induced madness, and my novel follows his descent and evolution.

     It’s dangerous because I placed myself where David was. I imagined myself as him, and started to adopt his attitudes in real life. Think it’s horseshit? Well, fuck you then. You don’t know shit.

     He begun to…not take over, but I felt myself already predicting what he was going to do next, before I wrote it. Before I imagined it. I felt my way through the darkness that was this novel, and was, or is, I should say, his character. He started to do things, terrible things, and I didn’t feel remorse for it. I started to understand him, and eventually, I found things within myself that brought David to life.

     I do not hide these things. Why? because. We must embrace all aspects of our personality. Writers just have the opportunity to turn it into something that others can feel and see. David, as well as all my other characters, all are shards of myself. The more time I spend with these fictional people, the more I feel them inside my head. Once again, think this is horseshit? Once again, fuck you. You don’t know shit. Writing a novel is akin to ripping your fuckin’ chest open and letting people examine your organs while you breathe and bleed. But, it’s not against your will. Or at least for me it isn’t.

     I have no problem baring all to readers. It’s what makes me a writer. But don’t you dare think for one fucking second that I don’t live my characters. When I kill a character, hurt them, make them do something, it’s moot. I don’t make them do a fucking thing. I don’t have control at that point, they are simply doing what I (or a piece of myself) would be doing.

     In a way, everything I write is simply an autobiography from different parts of myself, and it’s a constant fight to keep the me I show to the world the on top.